Earlier today I spent some time perusing the New York Times. In three different articles, I was struck by the profundity of the closing sentence: the first was sad, the second real and the third inspirational.
The first was an obituary for Marilyn Cooper, a Tony Award winning character actress who appears to have had a rich, rewarding and successful career and died on Wednesday night at the age of 74. The last line of the obituary says, “She has no immediate survivors.” Sad…
The second was the Shortcuts column in the business section, which this week offered exceedingly timely guidance about what to say and do (and, conversely, what not to say and do) when a friend is laid off. The closing sentence of this one: “As Ms. Trunk says, ‘Most people’s moronic comments are rooted in kindness.’”
And now, the best, which appears in an op-ed by Tom Bergeron, host of “Dancing With the Stars.” Of course, pop culture Neanderthal that I am, I had no idea who Bergeron was until I read the blurb under his name. In any event, he wrote about Susan Boyle (yes, even I know who she is), the unemployed, 40-something British woman who is belting out I Dreamed a Dream all over YouTube. Pondering our snarky, smug attitudes toward those who are less than young, beautiful or “cool” (however you define it), Bergeron closes with this: “We need the courage to believe that stirring voices can be found in unlikely places.”
Indeed, let us seek out those stirring voices and encourage them to sing.
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